Pick's Disease

Compared with Alzheimer's disease, which causes 50% to 60% of dementia cases, Pick's disease accounts for about 5% of cognitive deterioration.



Pick's disease was first identified in 1892 by Dr. Arnold Pick, who described progressive mental deterioration in a 71-year-old man. On autopsy, his brain showed unusual shrinkage of the frontal cortex, the region involved in reasoning and other higher mental functions. Cortex shrinkage is different from the anatomical changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease. Also, the brains of people with Pick's disease show unusual protein deposits called Pick bodies.



Ironically, the first person with Pick's disease was not typical. The condition is more common in women than men, and most people who have the condition develop it between age 40 and 60. It is rare in people over 75.



Pick's disease causes symptoms different from Alzheimer's: less disorientation and memory loss early on, and more personality changes, and loss of social restraints. But as the disease progresses, profound dementia develops until, eventually, people with Pick's disease are mute, immobile, and incontinent.



Pick's disease is diagnosed in a process similar to Alzheimer's. Frequently, an affected individual is diagnosed with "probable Alzheimer's," and later the diagnosis is changed to Pick's.